2 weeks ago
7
As recriminations raged over Brooklyn Beckham’s explosive Instagram messages claiming that for his entire life he had been controlled by his family and left with severe anxiety, I thought: ‘Here we go again, a millionaire whinging nepo-baby.’
Frankly, I had no idea who the villains of the piece were - the Brooklyn camp or the Beckhams. But out of curiosity I Googled images of ‘Brooklyn as a child’, ‘Brooklyn images with his parents’ and so on.
It would have taken a lifetime to go through all the images of a young Brooklyn - through all the hundreds of images of baby Brooklyn, toddler Brooklyn, teenage Brooklyn with his adoring and now saintly parents.
But after many hours online looking at all the ones posted by Sir David and Lady Beckham, I can only say that a picture can paint a thousand words. And these images - from Brooklyn aged four months right up to when he was as ‘best man’ and ring-bearer at Dave and Vic’s 1999 wedding - made me ask myself: ‘Do the decades of photographic evidence prove Brooklyn is right after all?’
In other words, have we all fallen hook, line and sinker for the Beckham family’s carefully curated PR narrative that, despite being one of the most famous families in the world, they are also warm and loving and determined to protect the privacy of their children?
Perhaps the distinguished Beckham biographer Tom Bower was right when he wrote at the weekend: ‘Brooklyn’s nuclear Instagrams denouncing his parents’ greed and self-obsession were inevitable – a heartfelt exposure of the price he has paid for the vulgar self-promotion of the family brand.
Brooklyn Beckham with his wife, Nicola Peltz. The 26-year-old hit out at his parents last week
‘He might come across as a spoilt brat, but when it comes to sympathy, the 26-year-old wins hands down. If there were ever a victim of rapacious parents and a dysfunctional family, it’s Brooklyn.’
Crikey Moses. Have those of us who believed in the social media narrative of the perfect Beckham family - with their £500million fortune and 121.9million Instagram followers - been conned all along?
Could the breakdown of Brooklyn’s relationship with the Beckham family be nothing to do with his ‘horrid’ wife Nicola Peltz, but all about Brooklyn’s decision to break free from a relationship he truly sees as manipulative and a bit sinister?
Let’s look at a picture of Brooklyn just after he has been born, where he is being cradled in his mother’s arms. Erm. It’s taken in a private hospital so no paparazzi were involved. It’s an image the Beckhams took themselves and shared with their followers.
Let’s also consider Brooklyn’s former girlfriend from 2017, Afton McKeith, defending her then very young boyfriend by saying of his Instagram post: ‘Brooklyn was telling the truth. It was hard for him growing up in the spotlight.
‘His parents could have protected him more and considered the impact of the public Brand Beckham which caused him great anxiety.’
His ex added: ‘He also struggled with Dad, David, and Mum, Posh, often being away from home (always working). They had nannies and siblings there, but he felt isolated.’
Now that’s not the idea we get from the Beckhams’ posts, of their kids home alone for months on end and being raised by the hired help.
As Bower reminded us, Brooklyn was just four months old when he was paraded at his parents’ wedding for OK! Magazine - which paid millions of pounds for exclusive rights to the event. The toddler was wearing a mini-me cream suit to match his father.
Around that time, the star footballer famous for ‘bending it like Beckham’ and scoring miraculous goals said: ‘I have never done a photoshoot with my kids. I never have and I never will.’
Politely, may I say: ‘Absolute balderdash.’
Lady Beckham and Sir David with the rest of their children leaving a hotel in Paris yesterday
If he thought he was keeping his son out of the limelight, he had a funny way of going about it.
Perhaps the former England captain was forgetting the pictures of his baby son wearing a ‘Beckham 7’ Manchester United shirt held aloft on his shoulders in front of tens of thousands of fans.
And what about those excruciating pictures of the very young Brooklyn wearing a LA Galaxy cap and shirt after his father’s football career sank and he was trying to reboot it.
Insiders claimed the Beckhams sold the first pictures of Brooklyn - billed hideously as ‘the most bankable baby’ ever - for an unreported, eye-watering £1million fee.
As a former national newspaper editor, I know for a fact that Victoria regularly tipped off our showbiz team as to where she would be so the paparazzi could snap her and her kids – always for a large pre-arranged fee!
How revealing, too, that Jo Elvin, presenter of Palace Confidential and former Editor of You and Glamour Magazine, recounts how in 2011, having never met Posh, she was sent a Christmas card signed ‘Dear Jo, with love Victoria’ with a picture of their children Brooklyn, then 12, Romeo, nine, Cruz, six and baby Harper all posed on a large sofa.
Jo then innocently reposted the image only to be castigated by the Beckhams’ PR team, which claimed it was a private image. Even though she had rightly concluded it had been more of a Press release than a Christmas card.
The then-England midfielder was celebrating a title win when he brought his son on the pitch
Victoria carrying a baby Brooklyn around Manchester's Trafford Centre in September 1999
Final thought. In the last episode of the hit Netflix docuseries, Beckham - for which the former England captain was paid around £25million - we saw a forlorn and regretful David lamenting the amount of media exposure his children had received as they built the family brand.
That had been especially true of Brooklyn, who was aged just five when the paparazzi started taking an interest in him.
Speaking in the final episode, a pensive, almost tearful David said: ‘Brooklyn at the time was so young. He had to go through that and I don’t know whether it’s harmed him in…I don’t know. I don’t know…’
Now you know, Dad.
Maybe in the dark shadows of the night you wonder if it was worth all those years selling your life and your children to the highest bidder.
Yes, Sir David and and Lady Beckham have made a fortune out of their happy family brand. But at what cost? Losing the love and trust of your first-born?
As Posh and Becks are fast discovering, however much money you make from media branding, you can’t bend the truth behind your millions.
English (US) ·